Kerry says Canadian parliament attack clearly 'terrorist act'

OTTAWA, Oct 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry said on Tuesday that an attack on the Canadian parliament
and the country's National War Memorial last week in which a
soldier was killed was clearly a terrorist act.

"Clearly, anybody who walks up in a premeditated way with a
loaded rifle and attacks someone in uniform then purposely goes
to a parliament, is committing, by common sense standards, a
terrorist act," Kerry told a news briefing after talks in Ottawa
with his Canadian counterpart, Foreign Minister John Baird.

Two days before the attack in Ottawa on Oct. 22, a car
driven by a man described by police as a homegrown radical ran
down two soldiers, killing one in Quebec.

Since then Canadians have debated whether the attackers were
motivated by Islamist ideology and a desire to sow terror or
whether they were merely mentally unstable and marginalized
individuals.

Baird echoed the Canadian government's view that whatever
the mental state of the attackers, their acts were terrorism.

Kerry came to Ottawa on his first visit to Canada since
becoming secretary of state last year to show solidarity and
discuss security issues following the attacks.

Kerry also said Canada and the United States would work to
intensify their close security ties, including border security
and intelligence sharing.

"Canada and the United States are now in discussions, not
with any sense that things weren't done or that there was some
information that we didn't somehow share or have, but rather
with a view to making certain that every possible stone is
turned over and every possible policy is reviewed, because our
obligation obviously is to protect our citizens," he said.

Kerry said he was confident that in the coming days and
months the two countries would come up with "some tweaks, some
changes, some additions that will promote even greater security
than we have today."

The United States and Canada share the world's largest
undefended border and for decades have also exchanged
information about people deemed to be high risk.

However, a Canadian official said on Saturday that Canada
did not share some intelligence with the United States about the
two men who carried out the attacks last week because of a 2013
court ruling limiting the transfer of personal data.

Kerry later toured the main parliament building, where
bullet holes are visible from last week's gunfight between
security officials and the attacker, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.

He then met at the airport with Prime Minister Stephen
Harper, who arrived from the out-of-town funeral of the soldier
who was slain last Wednesday. Harper thanked Kerry for the show
of solidarity.

Kerry responded that President Barack Obama wanted him to
convey the deepest condolences of the American people and the
United States' great respect for Canada's solidarity in
"standing up against terrorism."

Kerry added: "We appreciated your word particularly about
not being intimidated and the president and the American people
wanted us to come to you and say we are with you and we are
grateful for this extraordinary neighbor and great partnership."

The attacks in Ottawa and outside Montreal came during a
week in which Canada sent warplanes to the Middle East to take
part in air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq.
Canadian officials vowed their involvement would not be
influenced by the attacks.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Randall Palmer; Editing by
Sandra Maler, Jeffrey Benkoe and Tom Brown)